(WHALING) Pay ledger for the South Pacific whaling ship Flor

Sale 2646 - Lot 295

Price Realized: $ 812

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(WHALING.) Pay ledger for the South Pacific whaling ship Florida. 85 manuscript pages. Folio, original 1/2 sheep, minor wear; several leaves torn from rear; elaborate New Bedford navigation store advertisement on front pastedown. Various places, 1858-1861

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The whaling ship Florida sailed out of Fairhaven, MA in the fall of 1858, and after three years in the South Pacific completed its journey in San Francisco in the fall of 1861. Each page of this ledger is devoted to a crew member and his accounts with the ship. They are charged for cash payments, clothing, and tobacco. Some of those who remained to the end are paid off with a fractional share of the $43,815 proceeds from the sale of whale oil, sperm oil, and whale bone. Shares range from 1/30 to 1/200. Others are simply paid with a share of whale oil. The crewmen, as typical for a whaling voyage, bear a wide variety of names. Many are Yankee, Portuguese, or Irish. Others with Polynesian names were picked up later in the journey, such as "Nawaakelu or Jim" and "Kanakaokai or Ben Rush." Many of the ship's ports of call are named in the entries: "Cash in Hakodate"; "Cash at Hilo." The logbook of this voyage is held at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.